Joe Dunne revealed that he had been formulating plans to alter George Maris’ position for a while after Cambridge United’s 3-1 win over Crawley Town.

The midfielder started in the game in a fairly unfamiliar position, partnering Gary Deegan in the middle of a flat midfield four, and put in a superb performance, scoring his seventh goal of the season and setting up Jevani Brown for the U's third..

And the interim head coach said that it’s now up to him to ensure that the midfielder continues to get better.

“There was a moment at Chesterfield when we changed the shape and we dropped him in a touch and played him from behind the ball.

“We know George is still technically developing as a player and we're playing him behind the ball a little bit more and trying to get him on it and search for space.

“We’ve been working really hard with him on that and he did it again against Grimsby and got the goal breaking from midfield and it’s something we nearly looked at on Saturday against Carlisle.

“But today, that’s what he can bring, if he can get on the ball he can make forward passes, players can make runs off that and so on.

“I’m really pleased for him but the key thing is he’s adding goals to his game and goals and assists from a midfield player going forward is exciting but he’s still got work to do and that’s my job and our job as staff going forward.”

And while Dunne admitted that spreading the goals around the team was important, he added that it is pleasing to see development within the young players at the club, such as Maris and Brown.

“I think George mentioned that after [his] Carlisle goal, about spreading it around," he said.

“Goals are goals, obviously everyone wants two 20-goal strikers at the top and you’re zooming up the league but sharing the goals is good.

“The fact it is a young player now developing at our club in a positive way is good, George is getting goals.

“I’m really pleased with Jevani scoring. Honestly night and day, every day I’ve been saying this is what you can do, this is what you can add to your game, this is your potential and he showed that potential.

“Every day in training [I say] this is what you can do, believe, believe, believe, and it was a cool finish and I was really pleased with how we were composed we were in today’s game.”